Chris Taylor on Age of Empires Online on PC Gamer is an interview with the CEO of Gas Powered Games about Age of Empires Online, as GPG has taken over development of the MMORTS game from Robot Entertainment. Chris can't confirm that the plan was to hand the game off to a new developer after 24 months all along, but does say GPG is in this for the long haul, and there are no plans to again hand the project off to a new developer. He answers questions about his love for the series and faith in the game's free-to-play business model in light of Company of Heroes Onlineclosing before it launched. He also offers indications that the on hold RTS Kings and Castles may never see the light of day:

You know, when I saw Duke Nukem Forever go to Gearbox I realised that nothingís ever really done. Spielberg could go make ET part 2 30 years later, thatís a dumb example, but it shows that these things are not done until theyíre done and we could come back to that game any time in the future, but right now it looks like weíre going to be heavily invested in Age Online, and thatís not a bad thing for anyone. I sometimes wish there were more of me, but there arenít. This was the right thing to do right now.

Even as a huge Age of Empires fan, I'm still not the least bit interested in AoE Online. I'd rather see how King's and Castles would have turned out.

I'm not a big fan of (read: I hate with a friggin' passion) great RTS franchises being turned into ridiculous 'pay to win/pay for prettier colors' social games, so I am hoping this game dies a quick death as CoH Online did.

ďThe greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.Ē - Mahatma Gandhi

MxxCon wrote on Feb 25, 2011, 12:23:This game will be awesome. I've been in the closed beta test for this game for the last 9 month and have seen how it progressed.This transition explains why the development of the game slowed down in the last 2-3months.

I have no idea about this game, but why did they hand it to GPG if it was developing so well?

prolly financial problems.

No. I read it afterwards, Robot Entertainment was founded to create new IP. But they used AoE Online for their fest steps and it was always planned to hand over the project, after the game basics were finished. GPG is just gonna create content on top.

MxxCon wrote on Feb 25, 2011, 12:23:This game will be awesome. I've been in the closed beta test for this game for the last 9 month and have seen how it progressed.This transition explains why the development of the game slowed down in the last 2-3months.

I have no idea about this game, but why did they hand it to GPG if it was developing so well?

MxxCon wrote on Feb 25, 2011, 12:23:This game will be awesome. I've been in the closed beta test for this game for the last 9 month and have seen how it progressed.This transition explains why the development of the game slowed down in the last 2-3months.

I have no idea about this game, but why did they hand it to GPG if it was developing so well?

Can't say that I'm sad that King and Castles is dead, I would have bet some money that it would have failed on the market.

MxxCon wrote on Feb 25, 2011, 12:23:Either you don't know wtf you are talking about or you failed English reading comprehension 101.Age of Empires Online is not MMORPG.None of Age of Empires were ever RPG.This game will be awesome. I've been in the closed beta test for this game for the last 9 month and have seen how it progressed.This transition explains why the development of the game slowed down in the last 2-3months.

Probably because if its MMO, I care so little about it. They are generally pay monthly which I have almost no interest in. If this is pay monthly, all my points still apply.I know that Age of Empires isn't an RPG game series, I've played them before. That doesn't mean a thing in today's environment where companies seem to want to turn every game into an MMORPG even though that aren't suited for it.

Edit: I'm actually in the majority of people. Start typing in "age of empires mmo" into google. MMORPG comes up in the auto type list before MMORTS Also, according to the info I saw on a quick search the game will have leveling and quests, which are MMORPG elements.

I sometimes wish there were more of me, but there arenít. This was the right thing to do right now.

It sounds to me like Mr. Taylor is a control freak. It might have been more cost effective to hire a stellar project manager to see K&C through to completion. If nothing else they can recoup some of the development costs.

"It is possible to synthesize excited bromide in an argon matrix. Itís an excimer frozen in its excited state."

Kings and Castles was doomed from the start to be another repeat of when Cave Dog made "Kingdoms", which in part at lest devastated the studio.

They need to stop calling these games "free-to-play", they're all "pay-to-win", if you don't purchase their micro-transaction based perks you don't stand a chance of winning.

Being that they insist on using Games for Windows Live service this project isn't going to be 1/100th as popular as if they were to use something that actually works, hell Gamespy would be better than matchmaking through GfWL.

Paketep wrote on Feb 25, 2011, 12:50:This is no Age of Empires, Microsoft.

It's a very dumbed down and family friendly, casual version of one of the Greatest RTS of All Times. Technically, MS has every right to call this game "Age of Empires", but we all know, what this is ... misleading advertisement! The game itself might be not that bad, if you take it for what it is, but calling it "Age of Empires" is still false and misleading advertisement.

Either you don't know wtf you are talking about or you failed English reading comprehension 101.Age of Empires Online is not MMORPG.None of Age of Empires were ever RPG.This game will be awesome. I've been in the closed beta test for this game for the last 9 month and have seen how it progressed.This transition explains why the development of the game slowed down in the last 2-3months.

I doubt it. The world is littered with failed MMORPGs. There's only a handful that succeed. Even the "successful" ones usually only have a few hundred thousand subscribers, except a few like WoW of course.One play that IS making a pile of money though is browser based (esp facebook) games that incentivize paying money to get an advantage, such as almost anything by Zynga.